Plymouth company to arm police with smartphones

BI2 Technologies’ new smartphone-based system would enable police to scan suspects’ faces and eyes to check for outstanding warrants and immigration status.

By Steve Adams

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Steve Adams

Posted Aug. 8, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 8, 2011 at 8:10 AM

By Steve Adams

Posted Aug. 8, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 8, 2011 at 8:10 AM

PLYMOUTH

» Social News

After helping law enforcement agencies build an iris scan database to keep track of criminals, a Plymouth company now is preparing to arm police with smartphones to tap into the system on the road.

BI2 Technologies’ new smartphone-based system would enable police to scan suspects’ faces and eyes to check for outstanding warrants and immigration status. The program is being reviewed for approval by Apple for a projected iPhone launch this fall.

Civil libertarians are concerned about abuse of the Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System product, but the law enforcement community has shown enthusiasm about a new investigative tool. The company has received more than 1,000 orders from 40 agencies across the country, CEO Sean Mullin said.

“It’s a game-changer,” he said. “It changes the very way they’re going to be able to protect the public.”

Since it was co-founded in 2006 by Mullin and former Plymouth County Sheriff Peter Flynn, BI2 Technologies has sold its iris recognition products to 333 agencies in 47 states. Police and sheriff departments – including those in Norfolk and Plymouth counties – scan prisoners’ irises and send the information to a computer database maintained by the company.

When new prisoners are booked, their irises are scanned and compared to the database to check for outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions. The prisoners are scanned again before they are released.

“The important thing for us is we want to make sure the person we’re releasing is the same person we took in,” Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald said, citing a 2010 incident in which a 21-year-old inmate escaped from a Cranston, R.I., jail by posing as another prisoner.

Since 2009, the Plymouth County sheriff’s department has used an iris scanning unit in its booking department. Incoming inmates are scanned to check for warrants from other jurisdictions, while those being released are checked to make sure they match the department’s records.

This fall, with the potential approval of the smartphone application, BI2 Technologies will give law enforcement the ability to take the system out on the street.

A $3,000 device that attaches to the back of a smartphone enables officers to take a picture of a suspect’s face or iris. The image is compared with those in the company’s database, analyzing 135 dimensional points on the face. The phone then displays potential matching identities, along with information – such as outstanding warrants, immigration status and gang affiliation – that is kept in national police databases.

“It’s a great investigatory tool, but it’s not a positive ID tool,” Mullin said.

Civil libertarians say the device opens the door for police harassment and invasion of privacy.

“The idea that we’re creating these huge databases is really problematic,” said Laura Rotolo, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “The larger they are, the more prone to error it is. It really is Big Brother – the ability of government to follow you around and take pictures of you anywhere.”

Page 2 of 2 - But Mullin said the data isn’t stored on the device or the smartphone, significantly reducing the likelihood of a data breach.

Brockton police became the first department in the state to test a prototype of the mobile device for several months last fall, Mullin said.

McDonald, the Plymouth County sheriff, said it’s important to understand that the images taken by the device are not stored or added to databases. They are only compared to photos in existing criminal databases.

“You’re not getting scanned on the side of the road and being added into a database,” he said. “The info in the database is the people (already) in custody.”

With interest from law enforcement around the U.S., BI2 Technologies is gearing up for expansion. Publicity about the system has drawn network news trucks to the company’s headquarters in a small roadside building in Plymouth’s Manomet section.

BI2 Technologies has 11 employees including outside contractors. Mullin said it will be hiring more engineers, sales representatives and administrative support staff soon. Columbia Tech of Worcester will manufacture the mobile devices.

The technology has potential for other uses, such as being used by banks to authenticate electronic transactions placed on smartphones.